Jaguar Project 7 dials up the desire

Jaguar is honouring its heritage in a delightful way by unleashing its Project 7 concept at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this weekend.

Though based on the thoroughly modern Jaguar F-Type, the Project 7 harks back to the D-type Le Mans cars of the late 1950s. There's a historical ring to its name too as Jaguar won the 24-hour race seven times between 1951 and 1990.

As a purely driver-focussed pleasure machine, the concept is a single-seater complete with a racing harness and helmet holder.

The first things you're likely notice are the shapely faring behind the driver's seat and the lowered windscreen; other design changes include a restyled front bumper, new front splitter, side skirts and rear diffuser.

The excitement continues beneath the bonnet, where Jaguar's engineers have liberated more ponies from Jaguar's 5-litre supercharged V8.

It's now credited with a thunderous 405kW and 680Nm, a useful increase over the 364kW/625Nm outputs of the 'normal' F-TypeV8 S. Are they hinting at a forthcoming F-Type R here?

Expect this Speed Project to screech to 100km/h in 4.2 seconds and reach an electronically limited 300km/h.

Jaguar's eight-speed Quickshift gearbox delivers power to the rear wheels and the concept's cornering potential has been further honed by upgraded suspension and a 10mm-lower ride height.

The concept was penned by Cesar Pieri and when the Jaguar designer showed it to his boss, Ian Callum, the design director was clearly impressed:

"When I saw this sketch of a low-screen, single-seat F-Type, I felt enthused by it and wanted to take it further. As designers, our very purpose is to disrupt - to turn the norm on its head and see if it still works - and here at Jaguar, we love to push the boundaries," Callum exclaimed.

"When you look at this car, it has got an enormous amount of appeal. It's just full of desire - you can see that its sole purpose is to be enjoyed. Project 7 is a very special car - not just because it's a one-off, but because of its purity of purpose. It's pure Jaguar."